With all the attendant worry over England fans running riot in Lisbon as the Euro 2004 soccer tournament kicks off with England vs. France this weekend, the Lisbon police have said that they will turn a blind eye to marijuana usage among the English fans.
With all the violence that football hooligans have notched up the last thirty-odd years, largely fuelled by heavy alcohol (beer) consumption, Lisbon is taking a cue from the Euro 2000 experience that took place in Eindhoven, The Netherlands during the England vs. Portugal match. Fans remained good-natured and, more importantly, good-tempered. Johann Beelan of the Eindhoven police department declared that, "Cannabis ... was part of the conditions which meant everyone had a good time." The English fans had taken advantage of the very-close-to-legal status of marijuana in Holland and, of course, that it is cheap and easily purchased in coffeeshops.
Portugal also has a relaxed attitude to cannabis, even though it is illegal to consume the drug, especially in public. But possession is not illegal, and although Dutch-style coffeeshops do not exist in Portugal, many tourists in Lisbon are likely to be offered marijuana from street vendors, an easy way to score the drug.
The Portuguese police have all but encouraged cannabis use among England fans, who have been assured that not only will they not be arrested or disciplined in any way by the police for toking up, they will not even have their marijuana confiscated. Lisbon-area police just want to keep the order at any price.
Spokesman Isabel Canelas has said, "If people are smoking but not kicking each other, not beating each other, and not making a problem, why on earth would an officer go and ask 'Is that cannabis?'
"If you are quietly smoking and a police officer is ten metres away, what's the big risk in your behaviour? I'm not going to tap you on the shoulder and ask 'What are you smoking?' if you are posing no menace to others. Our priority is alcohol.” [Emphasis mine.]
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